My shoulders drooped the tiniest bit in relief, and I didn’t feel like vomiting any longer. Brittany pulled back from me, smiling and still keeping up the facade, her thumb stroking my thigh. “I… I can’t lose her as my best friend,” I quietly admitted.
Brittany tugged me closer and pulled my legs across her lap. “Well, she looks pretty pissed,” Brittany said, nuzzling my neck. I glanced over to where Coralie had been standing, only to see her and Jessica walking away. My heart dropped to my stomach.
“They’re gone.”
Brittany leaned back from me, her smile dropping as she frowned at me. I wanted to fucking cry. Had Coralie really just walked away? She hadn’t even stuck around to make sure I’d be okay?
“Why don’t you just tell her the truth? You’re hot as fuck, and from what I’ve seen of you—you know, since we don’t really know each other—you’re sweet. Any girl would be lucky as fuck to have you.”
“I don’t think I’m what she wants,” I quietly confessed. Brittany’s face fell, sadness glimmering in her eyes on my behalf. “She didn’t even seem bothered when I told her I was into you.”
“Oh, honey…” Brittany said softly. She patted my thigh. “Why don’t you go find her? Tell her we didn’t have chemistry.” She smiled at me. “But I’d still love to be your friend.”
I shrugged, feeling a little lighter. “You’re not mad I used you?”
She scoffed. “I got a cute girl on my lap for a little bit. No, I’m not mad.”
I laughed and handed her my phone. She put her number in as I stood, then texted herself before handing my phone back to me. “I’ll text you tomorrow,” she told me. “Go find her.”
I waved at her, leaving my drink there, and headed off in search of Coralie. Only… I couldn’t find her. Anywhere. Both she and Jessica had mysteriously disappeared, and when I asked anyone if they’d seen either of them, I just got negative answers.
They were completely MIA.
I stepped outside onto the sprawling front porch of the house the party was being held in, and my stomach dropped when I saw Coralie’s car was gone. Had she seriously left me here? What the absolute fuck! We never left each other at parties. Never.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and began to unlock it so I could call her. My finger was right above the call button beside her name when sirens wailed and blue and red lights suddenly lit up the front yard. My stomach dropped, and horror filled me.
This wasn’t happening. No, no, no.
People rushed out of the house, pouring onto the street to get away. I was knocked to the side, my head hitting the brick siding of the house painfully hard—hard enough to make me a little dizzy and disoriented. When I blinked my vision clear, I was being spun around, and my arms were roughly yanked behind my back.
Tears filled my eyes and dripped down my cheeks. A sob wracked my chest.
Everything was ruined.
Not only had my best friend abandoned me at a party and broken our number one rule, now I was being arrested.
I wished I’d never even opened my fucking mouth earlier today.
One
Mila
I frowned at the looming building in front of me. I was officially a college student, no longer living under the rules of a parent or guardian. I was sort of on my own now. Free to make my own decisions. Free to find my own way and who I was outside of the small town I’d lived in all my life.
Find who I was without Coralie because I still hadn’t figured that out yet.
The mere thought of her sent a pang through my heart. We hadn’t spoken since our huge fight the Monday after the party—the same party where I got arrested. I’d spent two evenings in a holding cell while my parents figured out a way to come up with bond money for me. I had to change my college choice since I wasn’t allowed to leave the state while on probation. I went from preparing to go to the college of my choice—University of Florida—to having to attend this small college two hours from home.
Twice a month, I had to travel back home for a drug test. And I would still be stuck doing community service if I hadn’t spent every spare moment working on reducing my hours. As it was, I had to find a job to pay my probation fines so Brittany’s parents could stop paying them for me. And it wasn’t like I could ask my family for help. My parents had done more than enough for me; they had to pull a loan to keep me from going to jail, which they were still paying back.
I’d disappointed them. And it’d driven a rift between us. I used to be so close to my parents, but going to jail put a lot of strain on them. So much strain that they were talking of moving because everyone in town, including people who used to be their friends, now barely spoke to them.
I’d humiliated them to the point I’d spent more time at Brittany’s after everything happened than I did at home. Because while I knew I’d made a mistake, my parents only looked at me with coldness and none of the love they used to have for me.
And the cherry on top of the shit pile my life had become? Coralie and I were no longer best friends. It had all ended in a bloody fist fight, which almost got me carted right back behind bars. The only reason I hadn’t been shoved into the backseat of a police cruiser for the second time in a mere three days was because several people had spoken up, claiming Coralie had started the fight when she shoved me into the sinks, which she had.
But even then, I hadn’t been the one to open my mouth and say anything. Even then, with her instigating a fight and abandoning me, I’d been ready to protect her. But all she’d been able to do was glare at me, pure hatred glittering in her eyes. Why, I had no idea. I hadn’t done anything to her. The only person who had a right to be furious had been me. I’d been the one abandoned. She’d been the one to break our number one rule when it came to parties.